Fruit juice powder and stabilization thereof



Feb.- 9, 1932. REM. wAsHBuRN 1,844,707

FRUIT JUICE POWDER AND STABILIZA'IION THEREOF Filed May l2, 1928 @291vl/w yPatented Feb. 9, 1,932

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT M. WASHBURN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

'ro ALBERT r. HUNT, or

CHICAGO, ILLINoIs FRUIT -JUICE POWDER AN) STABILIZATION TEREOFApplication filed May 12,

This invention relates to a dried fruit powder and particularly to sucha powder containing a stabilizing agent or substance, and

, to the p rocess of making such a fruit powder. A great 'many attemptshave been made to j dehydrate the juice of citrous and other fruits,such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and grapes. The-dehydration orextraction of the moisture from these juices is not particularlydifficult, but the solids obtained by such dehydration are of such anature chemically that these anhydrous solids become sticky and are veryhygroscopic. This characteristic of the owder renders the dehydraw tionimpracticaffle by any of the ordinary methods. The more acid the fruitjuice convtains, the greateris this dificulty. Lemon juice andL tomatojuice are particularly diflicult to dehydrate on this account.

All fruit juice solids are quite concen` trated, and thus very strong inflavor, and a very small quantity of such solids is required to producea satisfactory taste in any drink or food in which they may be used.Thus,

gg, the quantity sary to flavor a glass of lemonade would be so smallthat it would be dicult to measure accurately from a quantity in bulk. Y

lt is desirable, therefore, both fromthe 3o stand scopicity, and owingto the v,fact that it is `desirable to handle an appreciable quantityofthe powder, to have some other substance mixed with the fruit juicebefore the same is dried. If a satisfactory'substance could be found toovercome the hygroscopicity and also to furnish bulk to the substance,the result would bel most desirable. The applicant in; the present casehas discovered most sat- 40 isfactory and suitable stabilizing and eX-panding ingredients for this purpose.

.It isan object of this invention, therefore,

fto provide a stabilized fruit juice powder containing a suitablesubstance which neutralizes the hygroscopicity and at the same of lemonjuice powder neces-` point of overcoming the hygro' 1928. Serial No.'277,345.

gime furnishes considerable bulk lto the power. v

It is another object of the invention to provide a simple and eiiicientprocess of producing a stabilized fruit powder which is m lesshygroscopic and has considerable volume u or bulk. y

It is a further object of the invention to provide a dried fruit powderand process of making the same in which the pectin from citrons fruitsis used as a stabilizing and ezpanding agent, particularly the pectinconn tained in the light pulpy portion of the citrons fruit.

llt is also an object of the invention to provide a dried fruit powderand process of reparingthe same, in which alginates, particularly sodiumand ammonium alginate, are used as a stabilizer for neutralizing thehyg'roscopicvity of the product and for increasing the volume thereof. M

lit is still another object of the invention to provide a dried fruitpowder and process of making the same, in which the substance known asagar-agar is used as a stabilizer or neutralizer for the hygroscopicityand to add volume to' and dilute the powder.

rlhese and other objects'and advantages of the 'invention will be fullset forth in the following description made in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer tosimilar parts throughout the several views and in. which v l Fig. 1 is acentral vertical section through 4one form of dehydrating apparatussuitable for carrying 'out the process;

ig. 2 is a central vertical section 4through the distributor used; and 1Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on line 3-3 ofFig. 2.

The applicant has discovered that the pectin obtained from the whitepulpy `portion of citrous and pome fruits is very lefficient as astabilizing agent for the fruit powder for the purpose of neutralizingthe hygroscopicity thereof, and this substanceisv one factor oringredient in the product and process of this invention. AnotherAmerican mar-ine industry has now developed a pure food product frommarine plants, such as those of the family algae, which product is knownunder the general term of alginates or alginate material. This productis obtained in the form of a gluey like liquid of a clear white or ambercolor, similar` to thin petroleum. This alginate material is in the formdescribed substantially only one-tenth solid material, the othernine-tenths being principally water.

'This material has been found to be exceed-v ingly diicult to dehydrate,but applicant has invented a process of drying the same as set forth inhis co-pending application. v y The applicant has also discovered thatthis alginate material is highly elicient for use as -a stabilizingagent for the fruit powder to neutralize the hygroscopicity thereof andto furnish volume or bulk and act as a dilutent ,for the fruit powder.There are quite a numn ber of these alginates and doubtless more will bedeveloped. VThe one preferred by the applicant for use with'the presentinvention is one known as sodium alginate. This material by acidulationwithv citric acid becomes suitable in every respect and serviceable as astabilizing and expanding agent for the dried fruit powder. Byapplicants process the material is dried into inepowder and both it andthe powder from the fruit juices readily go into solution when mixedwith water..

producer.

- In carrymg out the-process, the stabilizing agents comprising eitherthe sodium or am` monium alginate or the agar-agar, or a mix-i ture ofrthe two, 'are iurther mixed with a small quantity of pectin and acertain amount of sugar added, the mixture being heated so that thesugar'ismelted and thoroughly dissolved. If the mixture is highlysweetened, the amount to b e weighedv of the stabilizing agent used maybe as-lowas 3%, and this will vary up toj10% of the total solidsaccording to the amountof sugar used. i -Afterthe mixture is, thusprepared, the

fruit juices are addedfand it -is disintegrated and dried by passagethrough heated air; While various orms of the ap aratus might be usedfor thispurposefone orm which is quite suitable is shown `in thedrawings'.` v

y Referring 'to the drawings,a drying cabinet is shown, comprisingachamber' having the vertical'walls 5a, floor 5b andthe top orcelreagire?? ing 5c. At the central top portion of thecab'inet is adistributing member designated generally as 6. 'This distributing membercomprises a conduit or pipe 5a having a collar 6b extending thereaboutagainst which is disposed the upper one of a plurality of concaveconvexdisks having their concave surfaces disposed downwardly and having theirperipheries closed with a multiplicity of points or teeth 6d. The disksare spaced by smaller disks or vwashers 6e surrounding pipe 6a, saidwashers having radial grooves (if in their top surfaces vtaperingoutwardly in depth and width. The pipe 6a, is provided with a pluralityof holes 6i leading therefrom alined with the groove (if in each of thedisks or washers 6e. The' lowermost washer 6e is held in place by acollar 6g threaded on the lower end of the pipe 6a and the lower end ofsaid pipe is closed by a headed stud 6h thread'- ed therein. rihe pipe6a extends upwardly through a bearing 7 secured in the top 5c and hassecured thereabove a driving pulley 8 over which runs a belt 9. A'bracket'lO is mounted on top 5c,- holdingjin position a stationaryconduit 11 in axial alinement with pipe 6a. The material to be dried isdelivered from pipe 11 and passes into the dpipe 6a. An air supplychamber 12 surroun s the upper por tion of cabinet 5 and opposite sidesof the cabinet 5 have the inlet conduits 13, 14 and 15 leadingthereinto, the other ends of these conduits being turned upwardly andopening into the chamber 12, the same being provided with adjustablevalves or dampers 16. The cabinet 5 also has at opposite sides thereofin the same sides as the conduits 13, 14 and 15, recovery chambers 17,which are provided with spaced horizontal shelves 18 having spacedbalile plates 19 extending downwardly therefrom. Bale plates 19also'extend down from the 'top of chambers 17. Openings 5d -I lead fromthe cabinet 5 into the corners respectively of the chambers 17 and theair passes in a circuitous path through chamber 17 and out at one uppercorner 17a thereof, where it preferably is delivered to a further powderor dust separating device. The porf tion'of the walls 5a forming thesides ofthe chamber 17 are hinged by the hinges 20 so` that they can be.swung inwardly as indicated I dotted lines, thus exposing the shelves 18so that thelatter may be cleaned.

The material prepared as above stated, comprising the fruit juices withthe stabilizing agentsxand sugar mixed therein,'which is in the form ofa comparatively thinliquid, is 'deliveredthr'ough conduit 11 into the'pipe 6a. This material passes down and issues?` through the holes 6iinto the grooves' Gf.

The head 6 is rotated at high speed and the materialis thrown out throuh the grooves e the dlsks 6c.

The material is. here distributed in ya thin lm' f onto the undersurfaces o and thrown. outwardly at high `velocity in ica iinelydisintegrated form from the points or teeth 6d, these teeth acting toinely divide and beat the material so vthat it is projected in a showerof very fine particles outwardly and downwardly. Hot air is deliveredthrough the conduits 13, 14 and 15 and it will be seen that this air isdirected in lines extending in different directions inwardly in thecabinet 5. The air from the conduits 13 is directed substantiallyhorizontally and this air prevents any of the material passing upwardlyor collecting on the top 5c of the cabinet. The air from conduits 14 isdirected downwardly some distance below distributor 6 so that a zone `isformed between the blasts from conduits 13 and 14, in which the showerof material is projected. The material falls and passes through-the airdelivered from conduits 14 and also traverses the air delivered throughconduits 15. The dampers 16 can be lregulated to give the desired effectonvthe entering air. The opposite inlets of air produce more or lesswhirling and eddyy ingso that Ithe material, by the time it reaches thebottom of the cabinet, is` in the form of a dried powder and isdeposited on the floor 5?). The air in the cabinet passes out throughthe openings 5d and any material carried thereby .is precipitated onl'the-floors and shelves of chamber 17 which material can be recoveredbyopening the door in the walls 5a. The solids in the fruit juices arethus recovered in the form of a dry powder' and this is mixed with thedried stabilizing material which was projected in the cabinet therewith..The resulting mixture of the dry powder is substantiallynon-hygroscopic and can be packed in desired containers Withoutdidiculty. It is, of course, preferably packed and transported in sealedcontainers. The

volume of the powder in comparison to the liquid is-quite small and thesame can be economically transported. The powder has a hlgh degreeofutility and is very convenient for flavoring water ices or sherbets,ice creams and various drinks and culinary products.

The product has been made. and the process amplydemonstrated in actualpractice-and both found to be very successful.

It will, of colirse, be understood that the steps and sequence of stepsofthe process, as

well as the proportions of the ingredients of the product can be varied,without` departing from the scope of applicants invention,

which, generally stated, consists in the process and product capable ofcarrying out the above mentioned objects and vsuch as defined in theappended claims.

What is claimed is i 1.- A dry fruit product readily soluble in water toproduce a clear solution, comprising the solids of fruit juices andthesolids of alginate material. l

2. A dry fruit product readily soluble in water to produce a clearsolution, comprising ature;

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